Latest plans for Tulane football stadium to be discussed tonight

Both supporters and critics of Tulane University’s planned on-campus football stadium can get an update tonight on what has happened in the more than 10 weeks since the university last discussed its plans publicly. A public forum, the fourth that Tulane has held on the issue, will begin at 6 p.m. at Freeman Auditorium in Woldenberg Art Center on the Tulane campus.

A view of Tulane's proposed new on-campus stadium

Plans for the $60 million stadium, which could hold 30,000 spectators for football games or other events, have drawn sharp criticism from some neighbors, especially on Audubon Boulevard, although other nearby residents support the project.

At the last public forum, held July 11, Tulane President Scott Cowen promised that the university would “enter into an enforceable agreement with the city” dealing with issues such as the number and types of events to be held at the new venue, plus noise, lighting and other topics of concern to many neighbors.

Cowen said the agreement would be signed before Tulane applies for any city permits.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu also said the city won’t issue any permits until the agreement is in place. He predicted that neither Tulane nor its neighbors would be entirely pleased with the final agreement.

Some critics of the project have called on Tulane to conclude such an agreement with neighborhood organizations, rather than with the city, or at least to make the neighborhood groups formal parties to the agreement. That would give them legal standing to try to force compliance if they think Tulane fails to live up to any of its promises during construction or operation of the stadium.

Cowen said the pact with the city will deal with many of the same issues that neighbors have raised.

“We will do as much as we possibly can to continue to be sensitive” to neighbors’ concerns about traffic, parking, lighting, noise and other issues, he said, but the comments and questions from many of those in attendance at the July meeting showed that not all were convinced.

It is not clear whether the agreement with the city is ready.

Tulane Executive Vice President Yvette Jones recently told the school’s student newspaper, the Hullabaloo, that the pact would likely be completed by late September.

Jane Booth, an attorney for a group opposed to the stadium plans, told the student paper that an agreement between the school and the city will not resolve all of the opponents’ concerns.

“What happens if Tulane breaches the agreement?” Booth said. “Who from the city gets excited and enforces the agreement?” — especially after the current mayor and City Council members are gone. “Until we see what the provision is in the agreement for enforceability, all it is is just a bunch of talk,” she said.

However, the promise of a formal agreement with the city, coupled with earlier Tulane assurances on issues such as the types of events to be allowed, led City Councilwoman Susan Guidry in July to drop her call for an interim zoning district that could have blocked Tulane from building the stadium, or at least delayed work significantly.

It seemed doubtful, though, that Guidry could have won approval of the zoning measure. The City Planning Commission voted 7-1 to oppose it, and even if the council passed it, Landrieu had promised to veto any such ordinance.